The Webby for Good, produced in partnership with WP Engine, is a showcase of Webby-honored projects and campaigns that are promoting social good in the world.

Describe your project. What is it, what was the elevator pitch?
UAW.org is the public website for The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America with more than 400,000 active members and more than 580,000 retired members hailing from the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It allows members and the public to have access to the latest news and information directly from the leadership. It also contains an extensive archive of information that can’t be found anywhere else on the web.

What key challenges did you face with this project? And how did you overcome them?
The hardest thing to wrap your head around in planning a redesign of this scale is how to migrate thousands of pages of content from a “legacy” unstructured setup into something that can be accessed easily, and with only 8-10 top level links in the navigation. We were able to make this happen by having a great team in place that took the time to plan it out in advance. Also a LOT of coffee.

What was the most rewarding aspect of working on your project?
I’m sure that what you're supposed to put here is that it was awesome to get over half a million people connected with their union and the information they need. But if I’m truthful, the most rewarding aspect was looking at the analytics and seeing multiple millions of people were using something you spent so much time creating. It's a cool feeling to say the least.

When working on this project, what were some of the most important conversations you had with your team?
The most important aspect wasn't what was discussed, but the frequency with which discussions took place. In a dev project of this scale, and with the amount of migration involved, it was imperative to be prepared and to have an open line of communication internally as well as with the client.